Buhari, Yemi Osinbajo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has termed the emergence of the former Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, as its vice-presidential candidate as its “political joker” that has sent jitters down the spine of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Timi Frank, in an interview with journalists at the weekend, said although Osibajo may not have had political structures before his nomination, his selling point as a member of one of the biggest churches in the country has stood him out as a critical factor in the election.
“The issue of the vice-president is not all about structures. You can even be a presidential candidate who does not have structures. When Dr. Goodluck Jonathan became the president of Nigeria, he had no structures.
“Osibajo today may not have structures, but he is even better and because of his Christian background, he has a structure whether you like it or not.
“Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is one of the biggest churches you can think of and has one of the largest followership in Nigeria today,” he said
Explaining how Osibajo emerged, Frank said the party believed it was necessary to carry everybody along and do everything possible to win 2015.
He said the idea of APC fielding a Muslim-Muslim candidates had been the expectation of the PDP, adding that the ruling party was clearly disappointed that its strategy did not work out.
“Whether you like it or not, these complaints are not coming from the leaders of the APC. They are coming from the PDP angle because their own strategy from the beginning did not work.
Right now, the PDP is confused because they felt it would have been easier to beat the APC if the party fielded a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“That was their calculation because they have turned Nigeria into a complex religious issue and issue of North versus South. Before today, there was nothing wrong in fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket. During the 1993 elections, it was a Muslim-Muslim ticket that emerged.
“As a party, we try to take every religion along. It is not even the issue of religion, but we believe as a party that we should carry everybody along because we must do everything possible to win 2015.
“So if that was the case and we picked a Muslim-Muslim ticket, we know that we will be playing into the hands of the PDP and that is what they were going to campaign with.
“So we brought a candidate that who never expected would emerge. Successfully, we have announced our vice-presidential candidate. Yes, people are saying that it was Bola Tinubu who brought Osibajo.
“But let me tell you that in politics today, somebody must bring in somebody whether you like it or not. Was it not Obasanjo that brought Jonathan to limelight? Was it not Obasanjo who brought Umaru Yar’Adua.
“So the issue of Tinubu bringing Osibajo or anybody bringing Osibajo does not play out in this context. The issue is that somebody has emerged and as far as we are concerned, the APC now has an impeccable vice-presidential candidate, a man with character and a fantastic background and a man who we believe can do the job and that is why we said unanimously that he should be our vice-presidential candidate.
“As far as we are concerned, every other person who was considered for the post of running mate are fantastic individuals who you cannot be compared to the PDP vice-presidential candidate.
“So I can tell you that we did not chose Osinbajo, it is God that chose him for us as vice-presidential candidate at this point in time,” he said.
Meanwhile the Buhari Support Group has faulted the PDP campaign fund launch, admonishing stakeholders in the power sector who contributed towards President Jonathan’s re-election campaign fund raising to put the funds into rehabilitating the sector.
Speaking on the issue, the Director, Media, Publicity and ICT of the Buhari Support Group, Dr. Chidia Mamduekwe, said the Buhari/Osibajo APC government would bring hope to Nigerians and would ensure that the country reaches or even exceeds the power generation capacity of about 15,000-20,000MW within their first term in office.
Maduekwe said he would have thought that such funds should have been better deployed in giving Nigerians improved power this Christmas season.
“No country has ever moved from developing to being developed by depending on generators as a source of energy to power their economy. It is most frightening when one juxtaposes the United Nations population projection of Nigeria by year 2030 at about 253million and approximately 300 million by 2050.
“This figure about the same as the current population of the United States. As such, the PDP led-government will only lead Nigeria into a demographic disaster with its current failed energy policy.
“Even if the Nigerian public were to credit PDP with an usual ability to suddenly rediscover themselves and pull away from their overt corrupt practices and multiplies the nation’s power generation capacity by a factor of ten, this is still very inadequate for our projected population.
“We shall still be an energy-deficient nation with a population of about 300 million at that time. However, this PDP inept government cannot, will not and has never been associated with such feats.
“In that case, we might just have lower power output in the next 15 years if they remain in power. Is this a worthy gamble for a nation already groaning under severe misrule?
“We have all witnessed from 1999 till date how billons of dollars have been deployed without any significant improvement in the power sector. It is certainly not in PDP’s character to suddenly improve and this situation, if not addressed, will only push the country into the demographic disaster that currently looms,” he said.
Maduekwe pointed out that it was evident that Buhari and Osibajo will leverage on their established record on good governance and zero tolerance for corruption to ensure that the country reaches or even exceeds the power generation capacity of about 15,000-20,000MW within their first term in office.
“It is only such that can guarantee Nigeria generating approximately 80,000MW in the next 16 years if APC were to be in the saddle for the same period we have had a PDP government,” he added.
However, the presidency has said the suggestion by the APC that the money raised at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fundraising dinner be used to fund national power projects portrayed the party as an unserious, unfocused and defective organisation with no reasonable alternative solutions to the nation’s problems.
In statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the presidency said: “Even though we have always known them to be a party with no clear directions, we never thought they could descend so low in exhibiting clear mischief and folly on a critical national issue.
“We wish to reiterate that this government and the PDP will not engage in a dubious practice of collecting money from private individuals and corporate organisations for a purpose only to divert such money to other purposes.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the power reform programme initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan is not run on a knee-jack finance arrangement. It is a properly envisioned roadmap which is being diligently executed in line with best global practices.
“The power reform programme is being funded through our national budgets and a Foreign Direct Investments running into several billion of dollars.”
Okupe said reputable global player such as the General Electric is investing over a billion dollars into the generation component of the sector.
According to the presidential aide, Nigeria is not a beggar nation and it will not be one under the Jonathan presidency.
Okupe then said: “The suggestion that the N21 billion raised at the party fundraising dinner be used for the power project underscores the perplexing ignorance of General Muhammadu Buhari and his team of party voyagers who have shown that they have absolutely no clue about what it requires to implement a modern revolutionary programme in a capital intensive sector such as Power.
“Finally, the accusation that the PDP governors who donated money at the event have not paid civil servants salaries in their states is largely untrue and mischievous.
“We want to believe that the APC probably has it’s own governor, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, in mind when it made this accusation because it is on record that despite being the major financier of the Buhari campaign, this is the governor who has not paid 13,000 teachers their salaries in the last eight months,” Okupe said.
